From small-town deputy to NCIS director, Lauren Holly built a career across two countries
Lauren Holly met Jim Carrey at an audition she lost, then married him after they made Dumb and Dumber together; the marriage lasted under a year. Her steadier partnership was with television, from four seasons of Picket Fences to running the agency on NCIS, and eventually she became a Canadian citizen.
Born on October 28, 1963, in Bristol, Pennsylvania, Holly grew up among academics. Her mother, Michael Ann Holly, is an art historian who directed research at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute and taught at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where her father, Grant Holly, a screenwriter, also taught literature. She studied at Sarah Lawrence College in New York.
Work began at 20 with two episodes of Hill Street Blues. At 23 she joined the ABC soap All My Children as Julie Rand Chandler, staying from 1986 to 1989, and in 1990 she played Betty Cooper in a made-for-television Archie film. The breakthrough came in 1992, when CBS cast her as Deputy Sheriff Maxine Stewart opposite Tom Skerritt in Picket Fences; she appeared in all but one episode over four seasons.
Film roles followed quickly. She played Linda Lee Cadwell, wife of Bruce Lee, in the 1993 biopic Dragon, then Mary Swanson, the object of Lloyd Christmas's affection, in the 1994 comedy Dumb and Dumber. Later credits include Sydney Pollack's 1995 Sabrina remake, Any Given Sunday in 1999 alongside Dennis Quaid, and What Women Want in 2000. From 2005 to 2008 she was Director Jenny Shepard on NCIS, working again with Mark Harmon and Rocky Carroll from Chicago Hope. She later played medical examiner Betty Rogers on the Canadian series Motive and had a recurring part in the third season of Designated Survivor in 2018.
Her private life drew headlines. A first marriage, to actor Danny Quinn, ran from 1991 to 1993. She met Carrey during Ace Ventura auditions in 1993, married him in 1996 and divorced in 1997. In 2001 she wed Canadian investment banker Francis Greco; they adopted three sons, and she took Canadian citizenship in 2008 before the couple divorced in 2014. In 1992 her family set up the A Fund at Hobart and William Smith Colleges to remember her brother Alexander, who died at 14.
Source: Lauren Holly
